Oddball, Experimental, or One-off

[red750]

The Blackburn H.S.T.10 (sometimes known as the Blackburn B-9) was a 1930s British twin-engined commercial monoplane, designed and built by Blackburn Aircraft at Brough, East Yorkshire.

 

The H.S.T.10 was a low-wing cantilever monoplane powered by two Napier Rapier VI engines. It had a retractable conventional landing gear with an enclosed cabin for two pilots and twelve passengers. It was fitted with a single-spar all-metal wing. The single tubular spar, known as the Blackburn-Duncanson, had previously been tested on a Blackburn Segrave Claimed to be lighter than a two spar design while also stiff in "torsion and bending", the spar also served as the fuel tank.

 

Intended to be "high speed" by careful attention to shape and removing "protuberances" with retractable undercarriage, the expected performance was 320 miles with two pilots and twelve passengers which increased to 1000 miles with both pilots and five passengers.

 

The pilots had individual rudder pedals but a single "handle" on the central control column which could be swung in front of either pilot seat. The cockpit was separated from the 18 ft (5.5 m) by 4 ft 4 in (1.32 m) by 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) high cabin. At the rear of the aircraft was a toilet and a 37 cu ft (1.0 m3) luggage space. Configurations drawn up by Blackburn included 12- and 8-seat passenger cabins or 4 bunks/stretchers as a medical transport.

 

The prototype used test serial B-9. In 1937, the project was abandoned, and B-9 was given to Loughborough College as an instructional airframe.

 

[red750]

The Blackburn B-54 and B-88 were prototype carrier-borne anti-submarine warfare aircraft of the immediate post-Second World War era developed for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). They shared a conventional monoplane design with a mid-mounted inverted-gull wing and tricycle undercarriage. The pilot and observer sat in tandem under a long canopy atop the fuselage. The B-54 had a piston engine while the B-88 had a gas turbine driving large contra-rotating propellers. The radar scanner was mounted in a retractable radome in the rear fuselage, behind a long internal weapons bay. The program was cancelled in favour of the Fairey Gannet aircraft.

 

[red750]

The Blackburn B.48 Firecrest, given the SBAC designation YA.1, was a single-engine naval strike fighter built by Blackburn Aircraft for service with the British Fleet Air Arm during the Second World War. It was a development of the troubled Firebrand, designed to Air Ministry Specification S.28/43, for an improved aircraft more suited to carrier operations. Three prototypes were ordered with the company designation of B-48 and the informal name of "Firecrest", but only two of them actually flew. The development of the aircraft was prolonged by significant design changes and slow deliveries of components, but the determination by the Ministry of Supply in 1946 that the airframe did not meet the requirements for a strike fighter doomed the aircraft. Construction of two of the prototypes was continued to gain flight-test data and the third was allocated to strength testing. The two flying aircraft were sold back to Blackburn in 1950 for disposal and the other aircraft survived until 1952.

 

 

[red750]

The Blackburn R.B.2 Sydney (serial N241) was a long-range maritime patrol flying boat developed for the Royal Air Force in 1930, in response to Air Ministry Specification R.5/27. It was a parasol-winged braced monoplane of typical flying boat arrangement with triple tailfins and its three engines arranged on the wing's leading edge. After evaluation, it was not ordered into production and no further examples were built.

 

With development of the Sydney abandoned, construction of a cargo-carrying variant powered by radial engines, the C.B.2 Nile was also ended.

 

 

[red750]

The Blackburn Perth was a British flying boat which was in service during the interwar period. It was essentially an upgraded Iris, and hence the largest flying-boat to serve with the Royal Air Force at the time (and the largest biplane flying boat ever to serve with the RAF).

 

The Blackburn R.B.3A Perth was designed as a replacement for the earlier Iris to Air Ministry Specification 20/32. Developed from the Iris Mk. V, the Perth first flew in 1933. It differed from the Iris by replacing the Rolls-Royce Condor engines of the Iris by more powerful Rolls-Royce Buzzards and having an enclosed cockpit for the pilots. Unusually, in addition to its normal armament, the Perth was fitted with a Coventry Ordnance Works C.O.W 37 mm (1.46 in) autocannon in its bows.

 

The Perth entered service with the RAF in January 1934, when the second aircraft was delivered to No. 209 Squadron RAF at RAF Mount Batten Plymouth. Perths remained in service until 1937, being replaced by the Short Singapore and the Saro London. One aircraft was retained by the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment until 1938. Only four Perths were built.

 

 

[red750]

The Airspeed AS.45 Cambridge was a British advanced trainer of the Second World War built by Airspeed Limited. It did not reach the production stage.

 

The AS.45 was designed in response to Air Ministry Specification T.4/39 for a single-engined advanced trainer to guard against potential shortages of current types, such as the Miles Master and North American Harvard. Airspeed's design, given the provisional service name Cambridge, was a low-wing monoplane of composite construction with a single piston engine and a tailwheel-type, retractable undercarriage. The Cambridge's fuselage had a steel tube structure, while the wings and tail were wooden, with plywood skinning. Pilot and instructor sat in tandem in an enclosed cockpit, with each crew position having doors on each side, one for normal use and one an emergency exit. A 730 hp (540 kW) Bristol Mercury engine drove a three-bladed propeller.

 

The first of two prototypes flew on 19 February 1941. Testing showed deficiencies in both maximum speed and low-speed flight characteristics.

 

There was no attempt to rectify these shortcomings, partly because there was no shortage of advanced trainers thanks to plentiful supplies of Masters and Harvards and partly because of the importance of Airspeed's other products, the Horsa and Oxford.

 

 

[red750]

The Airspeed Fleet Shadower was a British long-range patrol aircraft design that did not go beyond the prototype stage. A similar aircraft, the General Aircraft Fleet Shadower, was also built to the extent of prototypes. While the concept of a fleet shadower had some promise, the resulting designs were soon overtaken by wartime developments in airborne radar.

 

The Royal Navy envisaged a need (Operational Requirement OR.52) for an aircraft that could shadow enemy fleets at night and the resulting Specification S.23/37 called for a slow-flying low-noise aircraft with a long range, capable of operating from an aircraft carrier's flight deck. The specified performance was to be a speed of 38 knots (70 km/h) at 1,500 ft (460 m) for not less than six hours.

 

Five companies showed interest: Percival, Short Brothers, Fairey Aviation, General Aircraft Ltd and Airspeed.

 

General Aircraft submitted the G.A.L.38, of very similar general design to the AS.39. General Aircraft and Airspeed were selected to build two prototypes each and Airspeed received a contract on 10 August 1938.

 

[red750]

The Blackburn R.B.2 Sydney (serial N241) was a long-range maritime patrol flying boat developed for the Royal Air Force in 1930, in response to Air Ministry Specification R.5/27. It was a parasol-winged braced monoplane of typical flying boat arrangement with triple tailfins and its three engines arranged on the wing's leading edge. After evaluation, it was not ordered into production and no further examples were built.

 

With development of the Sydney abandoned, construction of a cargo-carrying variant powered by radial engines, the C.B.2 Nile was also ended.

 

[Litespeed]

On 02/12/2023 at 10:11 PM, red750 said:

The Blackburn R.B.2 Sydney (serial N241) was a long-range maritime patrol flying boat developed for the Royal Air Force in 1930, in response to Air Ministry Specification R.5/27. It was a parasol-winged braced monoplane of typical flying boat arrangement with triple tailfins and its three engines arranged on the wing's leading edge. After evaluation, it was not ordered into production and no further examples were built.

 

With development of the Sydney abandoned, construction of a cargo-carrying variant powered by radial engines, the C.B.2 Nile was also ended.

 

 

Typical of the bloody poms.

They make the ugliest flying boat ever and name it after the most beautiful city harbour in the world.

 

🤮

[facthunter]

IT WAS a beautiful Harbour before we came and dumped everything  rotten in it like it was a sewer or WET Garbage tip..   Nev.

[spacesailor]

Our " sewerage " goes out to sea at ' Bondi & Manly Heads ' 

Called locally  " turd Beach  " .

The Harbour is very clean .

spacesailor

PS

So told by, " Sydney Aquarium "

Edited December 6, 2023 by spacesailor
ps added

[Litespeed]

Years ago,  it really was a heavily polluted place and you would never, ever eat a fish you caught.

 

Still, west of the bridge can be dodgy, over past Rydalmere is still yuck 🤮.

 

But the harbour itself is spectacular and species are recovering. I have seen large schools of large Yellow king fish hunt as groups into small bays and feast. Much healthier these days.

 

Sydney heads is mind-blowing to enter when you consider it's home to a huge city.

National parks and nature abound. 

Compare that to other international harbour cities.

[red750]

The Planet Satellite was a British light aircraft of the late 1940s. Designed to exploit new technology, the aircraft was abandoned after two crashes although the innovative fuselage was later incorporated into a helicopter prototype.

 

The Planet Satellite was designed by Major J. N. (John Nelson) Dundas Heenan, of Heenan, Winn and Steel, consulting engineers, 29 Clarges Street, London, W.1. Dundas had served in the RFC in WW1, retiring as acting Major in 1919 and had then worked at the family firm of Heenan & Froude, leaving in 1935 when the parent company went bankrupt. He served on the British Air Commission to North America in World War II, and communicated many of Frank Whittle's reports to the USAAF, which eventually led to the Bell P-59 Airacomet, the first US jet aircraft.

 

The Satellite was a futuristic looking four-seater aircraft built of Elektron, a 90% magnesium alloy, in a true monocoque 'teardrop' shaped fuselage with no internal reinforced structure. The wings were also skinned with sheet elektron. The UK manufacturing rights for Elektron were owned by F. A. Hughes and Co., which had acquired the license in 1923 from IG Farben in Germany. Hughes & Co. had been fully owned since 1947 by Distillers Company Ltd., (makers of Gordon's Gin and Johnnie Walker Whisky), who decided to finance the Satellite: a partnership established the Planet Aircraft Company, which operated as a subsidiary of a liquor company.

 

The Satellite was powered by a 250 hp de Havilland Gipsy Queen 31 mounted amidships driving a two-blade Aeromatic "pusher" airscrew in the tail, with cooling air drawn by a fan through a flush slot on the roof of the fuselage. Other notable features included a 'butterfly' V-tail and a retractable tricycle undercarriage with some Elektron components, with the nosewheel retracting into a reinforced keel made of solid Elektron that ran the length of the underside of the fuselage.

 

Breaking with conventional design and manufacturing conventions, Heenan declared in the July 1948 Aviation News issue, that the 400 drawings made were in stark contrast with the standard of approximately 3,000 drawings required for a project of that complexity.

 

[onetrack]

I wonder if the designer got his ideas from the Bugatti Model 100 aircraft? I wouldn't have liked to have been in a crash with one, that Elektron alloy was 90% magnesium, and any fire that started after a crash would have been massive.

 

https://www.key.aero/article/sleeping-satellite

[facthunter]

It's extremely corrosive also. A lot of JAP speedway motors have the crankcases made of it and the bottoms rot out of them fast if they are left on the floor or leave mud on them.  It IS very light weight. but also has a high thermal expansion rate.  It's used in the cases of quite a few APU's  and the accessories drive case on the Cont. 0-200 motors and some of their predecessors. Nev

[red750]

The LearAvia Lear Fan 2100 was a turboprop business aircraft designed in the 1970s, with an unusual configuration. The Lear Fan never entered production.

 

The LearFan was designed by Bill Lear, but not completed before his death in 1978. It was planned for production to be carried out in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a new factory built with money from the British Government in an effort to boost employment. The aircraft had a pressurized cabin and was designed for a service ceiling of 41,000 ft (12 500 m). It could accommodate two pilots and seven passengers, or one pilot and eight passengers.

 

It featured a pusher configuration in which two engines powered a single constant-speed three- or four-bladed propeller at the rear of the aircraft. A purpose-built gearbox allowed two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6B turboshaft engines to supply power via two independent driveshafts. The intent of the design was to provide the safety of multi-engine reliability, combined with single-engine handling in case of failure of one of the engines.

 

The aircraft was made of lightweight composite materials instead of the more common aluminum alloy.

 

Another distinctive feature was the Y-shaped empennage. Two stabilizers pointed upward at an angle, similar to those on a V-tail aircraft, and a short vertical stabilizer pointed downward. However, unlike conventional V-tails, there was no pitch/yaw control mixing on the Lear Fan. The downward-pointing rudder also served to protect the propeller from ground strikes during takeoff and landing.

 

After the cancellation of a planned test flight on December 31, 1980 due to technical issues, the first prototype made its maiden flight on January 1, 1981, a date officially recorded by sympathetic British government officials as "December 32, 1980" in order to secure funding that expired at the end of 1980.

 

The Lear Fan, however, did not enter production. Structural problems were discovered during the pressurization of the all-composite fuselage. The US Federal Aviation Administration refused to issue the prototype with an airworthiness certificate because of concerns that, despite having two engines, the combining-gearbox that drove the single propeller was not adequately reliable. Development was abandoned in 1985 after only three aircraft were built.

 

The three aircraft were rgistered N626BL (Bill Lear), N327ML (Moya Lear, Bill's wife), and N21LF (Lear Fan).

 

 

[red750]

The Boeing–Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche is an American stealth armed reconnaissance and attack helicopter designed for the United States Army. Following decades of development, the RAH-66 program was canceled in 2004 before mass production began, by which point nearly US$7 billion had been spent on the program.

 

During the early 1980s, the U.S. Army started to formulate requirements for the replacement of its helicopters then in service, which resulted in the launch of the Light Helicopter Experimental (LHX) program. Nearly a decade later, following the refinement of requirements, evaluation of submissions, and the rebranding of the program as the Light Helicopter (LH) program, during April 1991, the Army announced the selection of the Boeing–Sikorsky team's design as the contest winner, shortly after which a contract for construction of prototypes was awarded. The Comanche was to incorporate several advanced elements, such as stealth technologies, and a number of previously untried design features. Operationally, it was to employ advanced sensors in its reconnaissance role, in which it was intended to designate targets for the AH-64 Apache. It was also armed with one rotary cannon and could carry missiles and rockets in internal bays and optionally on stub wings for light attack duties.

 

Two RAH-66 prototypes were constructed and underwent flight testing between 1996 and 2004. On 1 June 2000, the program entered its $3.1 billion engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase. However, during 2002, the Comanche program underwent heavy restructuring; the number of Comanches that were to be purchased was cut to 650. At the time, the projected total cost for the full production of the Comanche in such numbers stood at $26.9 billion. As early as the late 1990s, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) had reported that it had "serious doubts" about the program, observing that the Comanche would "consume almost two thirds of the whole Aviation budget by Fiscal Year 2008". Multiple government agencies had acted to cut the number of Comanches on order, but, as a consequence of the heavy reductions to the numbers to be procured, the unit costs soared.

 

On 23 February 2004, the U.S. Army announced the termination of the Comanche program.

[red750]

The Grumman XF10F Jaguar was a prototype swing-wing fighter aircraft offered to the United States Navy in the early 1950s. Although it never entered service, its research paved the way toward the later General Dynamics F-111 and Grumman's own F-14 Tomcat.

 

 

[red750]

The Sud-Ouest SO.6000 Triton was an early experimental French jet aircraft. It has the distinction of being the first indigenously-designed jet-powered aircraft to be flown by the nation, having been designed and manufactured during the 1940s by the French aircraft construction consortium SNCASO. 

 

Work on the French jet aircraft initiative had begun in secret during the Second World War, and harnessed research retrieved from Nazi Germany. Almost immediately after the end of the conflict, the French government issued a requirement for a batch of five prototype jet aircraft to be developed by French industry. To avoid delaying the overall project, it was decided to use the German-designed Junkers Jumo 004-B2 engine after severe development issues were encountered with the indigenously-developed Rateau-Anxionnaz GTS-65 turbojet engine. The British Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet engine was also adopted for some of the prototypes. 

 

On 11 November 1946, the first prototype performed its maiden flight, flown by test pilot Daniel Rastel. This feat was viewed by the government as being an important, and public, advancement in the capabilities of French industry and military capability. A total of five aircraft were produced for the test programme, including one for static testing only. Despite multiple aircraft been built and successfully flown, further development of the SO.6000 was abandoned following the rapid emergence of more advanced jet-powered fighter aircraft.

 

 

[red750]

Curtiss Twin P-40, a modified P-40 Warhawk incorporating twin engines mounted in nacelles above each wing and a rounded nose. The aircraft was supposedly a mock-up, but little actual information is known about it other than it existed; below is the only known photograph.

 

[red750]

The Curtiss-Wright C-76 Caravan (company designation CW-27) was an American all-wood military transport aircraft. The C-76 was intended as a substitute standard aircraft in the event of expected wartime shortages of light alloys. However, both prototype and production aircraft failed several critical flight and static tests, and after U.S. aluminum production proved sufficient for wartime defense requirements, orders for the C-76 were cancelled and production terminated.

Number built    25 (11 prototypes, 5 production C-76, 9 revised YC-76A)

 

[red750]

The Curtiss-Wright X-19, company designation Model 200, was an American experimental tiltrotor aircraft of the early 1960s. It was noteworthy for being the last aircraft of any kind manufactured by Curtiss-Wright.

 

In March 1960 the Curtiss-Wright Corporation developed the X-100, a prototype for a new, vertical takeoff transport aircraft. The X-100 had a single turboshaft engine, which propelled two tilting-propellers, while at the tail swivelling nozzles used the engine's exhaust gases to give additional control for hovering or slow flight. Although sometimes classified as a tiltrotor aircraft, the design differed from the Bell VTOL XV tiltrotor designs. The X-19 utilized specially designed radial lift propellers, rather than helicopter-like rotors, for vertical takeoff and augmenting the lift provided by the wing structures.

 

From the X-100 Curtiss-Wright developed the larger X-200, of which the United States Air Force ordered two prototypes designated the X-19A.

 

The X-19 had fore and aft high-mounted tandem wings. Each wing mounted two 13 ft (4.0 m) propellers that could be rotated through 90 degrees, allowing the aircraft to take off and land like a helicopter. The propellers were driven by twin Avco Lycoming T55-L-5 turboshaft engines mounted in the fuselage.

 

[red750]

The Curtiss-Wright XF-87 Blackhawk (previously designated the XP-87) was a prototype American all-weather jet fighter-interceptor, and the company's last aircraft project. Designed as a replacement for the World War II–era propeller-driven P-61 Black Widow night/interceptor aircraft, the XF-87 lost in government procurement competition to the Northrop F-89 Scorpion. The loss of the contract was fatal to the company; the Curtiss-Wright Corporation closed down its aviation division, selling its assets to North American Aviation. Only 2 prototypes built.

 

[red750]

The de Havilland DH.29 Doncaster was a British long-range high-wing monoplane of the 1920s built by de Havilland.

 

The DH.29 Doncaster was ordered by the British Air Ministry as an experimental long-range monoplane. The aircraft was a high-wing cantilever monoplane with unswept wings of wooden structure with a fabric covering. It had a box section wooden fuselage with a single fin. The crew of two sat in an open cockpit ahead of the wing. Two aircraft were built between 1920 and 1921 at Stag Lane Aerodrome. Early testing of the first aircraft (Serial J6849) resulted in a redesign of the engine installation. The second aircraft (Registered G-EAYO) was built as a ten-seat commercial aircraft. The airlines were not interested and further development was abandoned, effort being put into the biplane de Havilland DH.34. A proposed military reconnaissance version, the DH.30, was never built. The two aircraft finished their life at RAF Martlesham Heath with tests and trials, particularly on the thick-section cantilever wings. The Doncaster was the first British aircraft to use such wings.

 

[red750]

The Fairchild F-46 is a low-wing, cabin aircraft, with conventional landing gear and structures made using Duramold processes. The fuselage is constructed of two halves bonded together. The wings use wooden spars with plywood covering. The control surfaces use aluminum frames with aircraft fabric covering. A 50 U.S. gallons (190 L; 42 imp gal) fuel tank was mounted in each wing. Only one unit was built, and is currently being restored at the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum, Hood River, Oregon.